We found an abandoned race track in the middle of London
Вставка
- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- You'd expect to find a race track out in the middle of nowhere, a place far away from any chance of noise complaints and emission issues. But if you pick away at the history of London, you'll find that there used to be a circuit in the city, in a place that is now simply a public park. Let Mike take you through the history of the old race track at Crystal Palace Park in the middle of London.
Follow us:
/ drivetribe
/ drivetribe
Check out our store:
store.drivetri...
Subscribe to the DRIVETRIBE UA-cam channel: bit.ly/D_TRBsubs
Someone should map it and stick it in a racing sim.
There is a version for Grand Prix Legends, I think!
@@C.I... thank you I'm going to check it out 👍😎👍
@@C.I... There are versions for Grand Prix Legends, GT Legends, GTR 2, rFactor, rFactor 2 and Assetto Corsa that I know of. It may be available for others too
A sound engineer needs firing somewhere.
@@Gassit I have 3 of those thank you, I think they are probably patches( I don't normally do patches but I can make am exception for that). Thank you 👍😎👍
anyone want to get a couple of austin seven roadsters and ask the council to do a trackday around it for the sake of "history"?
Captain Zoll
Yea I’ll join
I'm in!
Absolutely!
that RC track is perfect!
They do an event each summer
“Should we explore more relics of the car world?” I thought that’s why you kept Jeremy, James and Richard around.
Who do you think own this channel?
relics yes but still more entertaining than pretty much all tv presenters
@@RK-zf1jm "I thought that’s why you kept Jeremy, James and Richard around." I don't know who he thinks owns Drive Tribe. but it's very hard to sack your own Bosses/Owners.
Damn, you beat me to it!
Everyone should 'Like' John's comment if you, also, thought of Jeremy, James and Richard when Mike asked if they should "explore more relics of the car world?".
I thought Jeremy, James and Richard are the relics of the car world 😂
Warning for headphone users at 5:25
A Llama your karma-bar is fully restored!
Good work
If only I'd read the comments first, RIP my hearing.
@@seanjamescameron sad but true 😅 I don't know why it was so muffled in the rest of the video
"We found..." they still hold sanctioned events there.
He clearly stated as much in the video. But it's not a permanent race track any more. Just about anywhere can be made in to a temporary racetrack, but it isn't the same as revisiting a purpose built, but now defunct and largely forgotten racing circuit that still hosts a race every now and then. Like a lot of people, I didn't know of it's racing history. There are actually quite a few forgotten circuits in the UK. I'm sure Rockingham raceway will quickly fade from the public's memory. 10 years from now someone will 'discover' it again and make a UA-cam video.
@@another3997 yeah I know, just remarking on the bait/uninformed nature of the title of the video, but they gotta get the clicks you know.
it’s 2020 if you expect someone to not click bait you’re missing a brain cell
Surely if you did one complete lap then that is the 2019 record lap as it is the only lap!
Lap records are set under racing conditions only I think.
The film good but it omits the fact the main start/straight has been grassed over so a proper lap is impossible without work.
There is another disused racetrack in a public park within London. Battersea Park, where Formula E season finale took place.
You know this year, they’re visiting london again but his time at excel London
That's what I thought this was going to be about
Brooklands!!!
Maybe they should regenerate Crystal Palace race circuit for the Formula E series, at least it will be quiet.
It's such a shame that tracks have to give in to the locals' complaints about noise. The track was there long before they were even born and they chose to live there.
Electric vehicles get a lot of shade from noise loving motorsport fans, but they are going to make it possible to run events on urban circuits once again.
No shit!! You moved next to a RACE TRACK and THEN complain about the noise. Fuck'in socialists....
@@goofyleo3869 Yeah! stupid sociali... wait, what?
@@goofyleo3869 It's the rich one's fault who bribe the council, the anarcho-capitalists not the socialists.
Cyrstal Palace was built in 1850 and was basically far out in the countryside at that time. Cities spread and accommodations have to be made for noise. I mean really, do you expect some company to start up Battersea Power Station again despite being surrounded by houses because it was built before the people in the neighbourhood were born? Cities change, get over it.
I used to go there in the 60's to watch the racing through the fence.
0:14 That looks like a good jump! 😂
Yes, please more of these abandoned places! Those races with those (now) classic Ford Escorts would be epic to watch at that track. Could James May do more of these video's?
Type in Motorsport at Crystal Palace and one of the events that comes up is a black and white race from the early 70's that features mk1 escorts and stuff vs a Camaro.
Vids with imagination make the best content.
Might want to actually fix the sound on this, its badly done
i just got done doing a new video in adobe, and i made doubly sure the sound was even all the way through. this one jumps around quite a bit, especially towards the middle/end
@@ghomerhust Thing is, its not at all difficult, mostly automated. What annoyed me more was the fake film dirt plastered over the B&W photos.
@@zybch i never noticed the fake dirt. Interesting
@@ghomerhust were you involved in the editing of this particular video? or do you have a level of expertise in this field?
Also why add dirty speckles to old images.
Fake film noise laid over slow-panned static images. Bad sound.
Embarrassing production!
Would really like to see the old part of Nordschleife.
Südschleife , it can still be restored
@@tedt7991 Well, parts of it can...parts of it have a Grand Prix track on top now.
Or even old Monza.
@@RedLP5000S most of old Monza is a bike track now you can visit. I've been and its cool.
@@Trendyflute actually most of the Südschleife is around the Gran Prix Course
Some of the saloon Car races that are on UA-cam are some of the best races you will see.
Gerry Marshall in a DTV Firenza..... Nuff Said Geez
Wow i should check this out!
> takes car there
> drives over 5 family's
> kills 6 joggers
> 2 granny's
> 3 dogs
" ... damn i was to slow "
You were doing fine until you hit the dogs. I mean, the families are okay as the world population needs to decrease, the grannies are nearly there, you're simply giving them a last push and you're putting the joggers out of their misery....but the dogs?
@@lwaves they were with the joggers.
I was doing them a favor.
Too slow
GTA - Crystal Palace Stories...
Coming Spring 2020.
The world population doesn't need to decrease; capitalism needs to stop putting arbitrary barriers in the way to people getting everything they need to live.
anyone who thinks the Jaguar i pace is a good ev should‘nt be a show host on a car show.
Says who exactly?
0:42 why does the jag have pc disc trays comin from the doors???
Clickbait. Turns out to be an advertisement for Jaguar.
'A shitty Jaguar' (there; fixed it for 'ya)
In Germany near Stuttgart there’s an abandoned racetrack which is now a public road. It’s Called „Solitude Racetrack“ and I think it even hosted some F1 races in the 60s. Was mainly a motorcycle racetrack tho because it wasn’t all too wide.
And nowadays there’s every two years a „Solitude Revival“ event, where the public roads, which were part the race track, get closed down and for example Porsche and Mercedes take out their old cars and racecars for a spin around the track and you’re able to watch them. Pretty amazing.
Oh, and edit: it’s also named after the nearby castle Solitude.
The Solitude circuit was absolutely brilliant. You're right, it did hold F1 races in trhe early 1960's, but was mainly used for motorcycle racing.
james needs to visit there with his massive scalextric set from his childhood toy series.
When the video started I was thinking RC cars but Scalextric and James will do nicely.
James actually did a TV series where he went through child hood toys, he created a scalextric track at an abandoned F1 track,
Yes, I know. :-)
Tie bim to track
My mum and dad took me there in the 50s to watch the racing, was a great track and some good racing went on there. I do remember the wooden fencing there for spectator safety. Lol and there was still a lot of the ruins left from the old crystal palace, great place to explore when I was a young boy and I always remember the smell of Castrol R put in these racing cars, better than any perfume.
"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" was filmed here I believe.
Thats right, that scene from 'The Italian Job' was filmed at the Crystal Palace!
@@henryhol8538 any idea which part of the circuit it was?? they crashed the mini on the ramp( with the bricks on top ) too didnt they??
@@jackytwix5956 It may have been near the Start/Finish line as Michael has the Tower behind him. I may need to rewatch the short youtube video I did some years ago on 'Motorsport at the Palace' just to be sure.
“Your supposed to use your brakes Chris!”. “Terribly sorry Charles”.
Yes. I was there that day. Off to the left approaching North Tower.
You can’t really claim to have “found” it.
I believe James hunt raced here if rush isn’t wrong
Hunt yes, but the race with Lauda in F3 never happened. Hunt crashed, as he usually did, which earned him his nickname of Hunt the Shunt.
okleydokley I get the feeling he had a bit of the Colin mcrae of him
Hunt did race at Crystal Palace, and one of his races there was documented in Rush. But it was actually filmed at Cadwell Park...for obvious reasons.
Yes it was at Crystal Palace in 1970 where he knocked Dave Morgan out.
I saw James Hunt crash there when I was six years old - he got out and punched the other guy. A copper broke it up - magic days...
5:25 lol
Maybe if the ExCel London ePrix circuit falls through, Formula E could have a loot at this!
Racing in a park doesn't work; they already tried that on the ring road at Battersea and it was a mess. ExCel is really where the London E-Prix should have been right from the start. IIRC Boris Johnson insisted on Battersea as the venue when he was mayor of London, and as usual he ended up screwing things up; cretinous oaf who couldn't give less of a damn about motorsport.
I was a race marshall here in the late sixties. Wonderful track but had plenty of tree hazards infield. Watched James Hunt in F3 and Roger Williamson in his Ford Anglia. A sad loss when it closed. Thanks for bringing back very warm memories.
My Marshall post was at North Tower. Two incidents I remember clearly are 1. James Hunt losing his F3 and hitting a tree on the inside of the track. Unfortunately he rolled back onto the circuit and collected another car. I believe later there was an altercation in the pits. 2. Roger Williamson losing his Anglia into the Aramco on the outside and wiping our a BBC outside broadcast camera poking its lens our between the Aramco. Both Williamson and the camera operator were fine thank god
When I next in London I'll have to take my RC car around the track.
I'll never understand people moving close to racetracks and then complaining about the noise and forcing authorities to shut it down. Ffs...
PREACHIFY!!!
Only if the racetrack was there first. I can understand it if someone had been living there for ten years and suddenly motor sports events were being held every weekend.
@@joelambert7128 Just read about what happened to Laguna Seca
@@elvis1745 those people moved in AFTER the track was built and operational. I love racing, and I can hear Goodwood faintly from my house when there is an event on, but if somebody decided to build a track 50m from my house one day, and held events every week, I would have every right to be pissed off.
I used to spend a lot of my time as a kid in the 80s in that park. I used to love tearing my little bike around the place thinking I was a racing car driver, specially the top part near the lake, band stand and fishing lake.
That top section is epic, must have been mega in a little Formula 2 car.
The park was a magical place, years ago.
Electric car races would eliminate noise and smell complaints.
Crashes would be spectacular to huge batteries release all energy in an instant make petrol cars look like a fender bender in car part
Can you do the Birmingham Superprix, its almost as pretty and it starts/ends at a ford garage...
Crystal Palace has always reminded me of a track in Helsinki, Eläintarha ("Zoo"), where they raced for example sportscar races (Ferraris, D-type Jaguars etc.), Formula Junior and Formula 3 until 1963, when the Swedish driver Örjan Atterberg lost his life on the start-finish line in an F3 race. What is also similar to Crystal Palace is that the Eläintarha track went right behind the Olympic Stadium...
Nice track!
Lovely I-Pace too!
It's kind of criminal that a video like this had to be made on Crystal Palace, but it's barely known about at all today to anyone under the age of 40. While it could be argued that it was never going to survive the changes it would have had to go through regarding modern racing safety improvements, it was still a big part of British motorsport history. This should have been the place that Formula E was brought to, and it would have been a serious PR if it had been considered, but sadly London has never been kind to Motorsport.
Now that you have more than one million subscribers, your production needs to be above bar.
Therefore an audio mistake like the one 5:25 is not acceptable.
You say "found" it's not like you're time team and discovered something buried 3000 years ago, it's a track that was on TV ! 🤪🤣
Like Europeans discovered the "new world" when people were already living there lol
I enjoyed this video and I would appreciate more like it
Time for me to start searching from some more abandoned things then! Thanks!
The circuits of the past channel have been doing this for years
@@mikedrivetribe8314 Exploring a London race track with a vehicle used in the Formula e support race? I see where you are going with this Mike....
I raced at the RC track a few times in the past. I had no idea it used to be a track, very interesting to watch!
it's more than a couple of miles from central London!
7 miles to be exact
My granddad used to race there! It was one of his favourites.
Thank you so much for making this video.
I rediscovered Crystal Palace Race Circuit via simracing soon 25 years ago via early mod for GPL. But could have rediscovered if I didn't turn pages of a splendid motorsports book too careless as a boy in early 80ies, but presume it was due to it was foreign language (English) of which I still wasn't familiar to. The latest mod versions for AC, rF1, GTR2 are all splendid for tight simracing in smaller grand touring cars. I reeealy need a time machine to to back there, just came from watching a race the year I was born - definitely born in the wrong time frame!
Thanks for sharing. Greets from DK❤
@1m10s and other examples: Why the fake film flaws on gentle pans across historical black-and-white still images? Your video editor needs a reboot, and I'm referring to the person. Bad decision making.
THIS TRACK WAS IN THE MOVIE RUSH, in the beginning when James Hunt and Niki Lauda encountered each other in Formula 3.
Yeah, in real life he and David Morgan crashed in the F2 race there in 1970, ending in Hunt punching Morgan. (During a live TV broadcast of the race as well...)
They did film the opening sequence at the Palace and the track action was filmed at Cadwell Park.
Laid out and made are two different things, for me and many others Brooklands was the first properly built race track in 1907. (On British soil)
This is too cool! Old school tracks and vintage f1 pics tickle my neck.
Please more content like this!
I was interested until the Jaguar turned up. 🙄😴😴😴
Yes I would love to see some more abandoned tracks. Great video 😃👍
Yea please. More exploring abandoned race tracks
Try this channel called Circuits of the Past
ua-cam.com/channels/PLRIRd9Nko05hGh33cLjaA.html
More of this with before and after
WOW, thanks!
I lived close by as a young child (around 1973). I would 'explore' there including the dinosaurs models, and at 6.53 I fished in the lake behind you.
Being not long abandoned it was great. They did have an exhibition race there when I saw the crowd protection - stacked sandbags at the corner where spectators gathered.
Ah, Thanks again :)
We all love those people that move next to an historic track and then complain about the noise
You may probably be unaware that since at least 2010 the Seven Oaks & District Motor club have run sprint events there at an event called "Motorsport at the Palace". They were invited by Bromley Council to stage such an event. The event can be found on facebook and of course on UA-cam, even the last race was televised in I think 1974. So discovering a race circuit is certainly no surprise to me. If you are nearby go to the event this year on the 24th&25th May 2020. I have been to every event so far and have enjoyed it each time.
Should explore Ulster TT circuit soon between Newtownards and Dundonald 👍
Huge history on that circuit and the greats of the day all raced there👍👍👍
Never knew Crystal Palace racing track existed. Great film 🎥🙂
In answer to your questions at the end, my answers are :- yes, YES & YES !!!!!!!!!!!
I live not far Crystal Palace park.
I've walked around that track dozens of times and should therefore be the current lap time holder.
you need a sprint to set that record mate, or you will have to walk...
@@PrograError It was a joke mate.
@@Demon_Derek r/woosh then
Maybe formula E should take a look... More history there than most of the other tracks? they use.
I can remember watching the racing with my older sister, we walked up from Sydenham, and the atmosphere and noise was fantastic. Thank you for your stirring those memories.
My Dad grew up on Sydenham Hill and remembers when the races happened, he actually enjoyed being able to hear the cars racing round. On the day of the very last race, he was 11 years old, old enough to remember it well
Better than the videos of Hammond advertising the Ford pick up
"We "Found" an "abandoned" racetrack in the middle of a city"
Oh god that racetrack sat unnoticed for centuries! I can't believe no one noticed or found it before in the heart of the city!
What a world we live in. Its almost as if it wasn't lost or abandoned at all
also that's pretty Uk centric, in Singapore the old SG F1GP goes round the reservior area with the track called the Thomson Circuit with some very dangerous nickname for some bends...
I learnt something here⚠️😁👍😎
You gotta run that at 3am to get a good test lap time
I clicked the video and thought it was Mike Boyd
I didn't think "Crystal Palace Raceway'' was built in the heart of London. I always believed it was like every other British racetrack, in countryside with the local village being near by.
shouldn't this feature one of those "paid promotion" tags?
Well at least there’s more of it left that at Brooklands.
Car enthusiasts who fear the electric future, there is a potential upside: perhaps the return of city center race tracks that can run without being killed by noise complaints?? Would be great!
Hopefully Electric racing will bring competition back to the Palace.
And what relevance does that jaguar have to this video other then as undisclosed paid promotion/sponsor?
Possibly to demonstrate how hideously ugly the new Jag is compared to the old race-cars in the photos. The Jag looks bad from every angle.
Love the video. Seeing the track shut hurts my heart.
Amazing video, nice cinematography nicely explained but please you guys need to work on the audio
Yes, more please, but sort your sound out.
So, let me get this straight in my mind... You found an
"abandoned race track in the middle of London"
that holds racing events every year...
How exactly do you define the word A B A N D O N E D ?
he found the Formula E circuit
I think he means 70% or so is abandoned, the point is if you like the atmosphere of a bygone racing period when 20% of the F1 grid were killed each then you might get something from a visit. I cannot explain how dramatic and dangerous racing was in those days. The only way I can describe is this: Inmagine the joy of scaling Everest by a staircase with handrails as opposed to mountain climbing with ropes and hooks. The risk made motorsport so exciting and the Palace was a dangerous but glorious place to be part of.................
Why animate film artifacts over static photos? Goofy as frig
But why is the presenter dressed as a caretaker?
I must be getting old! Back in the 60’s I remember going to Crystal Palace racetrack with my cousin, his dad, my uncle, who worked for a local garage company called SG Smith and they supplied a towtruck for dragging broken race cars back to pits. Happy days!.
See clip below watch out for the mini crashing and the recovery!
ua-cam.com/video/bWp-0TuY4Sk/v-deo.html
Yes please, more car relics fom the past!!
Bridlington race track on bessingby industrial estate
I've been there so many times and never knew that was there
I stoped watching, once that EV rolled in. Get a car next time. After all this is a car-channel. Right??
A car needs an engine, to be a car. Check the Oxford Dictionary.
An "engine" is defined by it generating it's own power. Combustion. A "motor" is defined by drawing power generated from an outside source. Electricity. Check the Journal Of The American Rocket Society on that.
Now this brings back such memories. As a kid, on race days, I'd sneak onto the race track through the park and spend hours watching the racing. In my day car racing had pretty much finished at the Palace but motorcycle racing was still going strong, I can still hear the scream of engines and the smell of Castro R, such memories.
It is sad to see something like that go by by from the raceing world track looks like it be fun
The sprint race is called 'Motorsport at the Palace' I have watched (and filmed) a small bit of it some years back. I wonder if the powers that be would consider hosting a 'Formula E' race there? If it could be done at Battersea Park why not Crystal Palace. Someone has mentioned in the comments the role this track played in a famous 1960's Film.
The audio on this is a disgrace
Love the channel but for such professionally produced video's what is wrong with your sound levels? They are all over the place going from near silent to over-modulated on nearly all of them.
Where's Rodney Del Boy ?
Exploring relics of the car world? Nothing I find more fascinating than that, so yes please.
Jaguar commercial? Sorry just felt like a bit of placement there at one point, maybe I’m just internet jaded...
Complaints are whats hurting Brands Hatch. Why would you move into a village knowing there is a racetrack there and then complain? If they don’t like it ill swop houses with them!
I also miss Rockingham.
Sorry guy you need to work on your record and play back volume. It very up and down. Get James to listen to it.
Other that that it was a great video. I just wish you could have race around the full track.
P.s. still get a thumbs up 👍
It needs someone to map it out properly with photogrammetry and recreate it digitally for Gran Turismo or Forza etc. so that we can all enjoy it. It wouldn't be too hard for some of those driving simulator games to also recreate period-correct cars as well, since enough of them still exist in museums to be scanned.
Jim Clark...Greatest of all time 😌
The most shocking part of this video is that the Brits are building electric vehicles...I guess I missed the part where they sorted out the shitty electrical systems on every single petrol car they’ve produced in the past 40 years! 😂
I have lived adjacent to the park since the early 60's and remember the racing well, you could actually smell the exhaust from my house and clutch and it was quite loud but as a child it was amazing. I remember being taken in to the pits by my Dad where you see the legends actually working on their own cars! They were so approachable and genuinely friendly toward a star struck child... Happy days! Great video... !
it would be nice to see a video exploring an abandoned British car factory.
Love these types of videos! It's really cool seeing abandoned circuits for sure. Please do more.
I'll start searching! Thanks!
I used to walk this park like every day when I lived across the road. Never knew anything about this.
After watching your video, I went to the site of the people that ran the hill climb. It seems since the pandemic, hill climbing has ceased.
I did not know that Crystal Palace had a race track, even though I had been to the park many times in the 1970s.
I was actually looking for abandoned London speedway tracks. Do you think that there is enough of the old track to create a speedway oval?